Isaiah 53:5
New International Version (NIV)
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
I think it is very important to understand grace and to understand that even with grace we still suffer the consequences to our sin. The grace of God is the most beautiful thing in the world, to the person who encounters it. The bible says he who has been forgiven much loves much. The day I knew I was truly forgiven changed my life forever. The reason I serve Christ today is because of the encounter of love and grace I experienced. Guilt, shame and damnation are very heavy to carry. Imagine carrying the worlds guilt and shame because that is what Christ did. He forgave all who will come to Him, for yesterdays, today’s and tomorrows sin. We have been covered by the blood of the lamb who was slain. So there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Whoever is set free, is free indeed. Grace came at a cost, a tremendous cost. Have you seen Mel Gibson s The Passion Of Christ? I cried through the whole movie like no movie I have ever seen. The movie brought what Christ did home to me. I don’t think I really ever truly took myself that close to the cross. The experience I had with the movie made me feel like I was there. I could imagine being one of His disciples and witnessing what took place. I can also see why these men where willing to give their lives to Christ in the ways they did. It is very important to understand the fullness of what He did and then to bring it home to our hearts. So if all of our sin is taken care of what then?
Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.
I have told you I like to live my life in Christ by correlations such as spirit, flesh, life, death, forgiveness, damnation, holiness, sinful, blessing and curses. To understand grace is to know in Gods eyes you are clean, forgiven by His blood. When you die you will be perfected and completely holy If you have received Christ as your Lord and Savior. Why then are we still suffering from sin and the consequences that come from it. The answer to that is flesh. In this world we still have flesh to tend with. Christ says walk by the spirit.
Galatians 5:16
New International Version (NIV)
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Everything has an opposite! That is what repentance is, doing the complete opposite. If we walk in sin yet live by grace we will live a very cursed life.
The Offer of Life or Death
11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
If you are wondering why You are struggling with curses still in your life, curses grow from your sin. If you continue to plant sin in your life, your harvest will be curses. If you plant holiness in your life your harvest will be blessings. Sowing to your Christian walk is everything. What you plant will be what you will feed off of for the years to come. The good news is, if you are suffering curses, you can plant new seed. You can always change what you are planting and what your future harvest will be. He has done His part, you are covered, now walk with Him by the spirit and plant to the spirit, the seeds of the spirit, which are, read His word, worship, pray and reach out to those in need or those whom God calls you to, like certain ministries.
May the Lord bless you and bless the seeds you are planting or are about to plant! May your day be filled with his spirit that it will guide you to walk in it. 🙂
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